Read Tolkien? Watch Yes Minister? Then you’re a fascist.
Jan 5, 2024 9:06:57 GMT
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Post by thomas on Jan 5, 2024 9:06:57 GMT
The existence of a government-compiled list of ‘key texts’ that is, ‘mainstream content shared in online spaces that are known to be frequented by terrorist and extremist influencers and susceptible audiences’ was revealed in the media several months ago.
That list was reported to include the works of authors such as C.S. Lewis, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley and Joseph Conrad as well as television programmes including the Kenneth Clark TV series Civilisation, The Thick of It, Yes Minister and Great British Railway Journeys.
Now comes news that Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy has been added to the list of ‘key texts’ for incipient white supremacists. According to a report in the Sunday Times:
“…The far right tends to view The Lord of the Rings through the lens of race, in which elves — described in the books as tall and “fair of skin” — are pitted against lesser peoples like the orcs, who are portrayed as black-skinned with features including “wide mouths” and “slant eyes”. They identify with the heroism of a ragtag group of outsiders — not unlike today’s alt-right — standing up to a tyrannical power hellbent on obliterating their traditional way of life...
The neo-Nazi organisation Patriotic Alternative has devoted part of its website to the discussion of Tolkien’s work. On its blog one member discusses how the Shire, the idyllic rural homeland of the hobbits, can be seen as an allegory of white British nationalism untouched by “cosmopolitan delights” — what the member describes as “Afro-Caribbean knife crime” and terrorism.
One of the UK’s best-known fascist bloggers uses the pseudonym Morgoth, the name given to Sauron’s villainous predecessor. On his YouTube and Substack channel, Morgoth’s Review, the blogger touches on themes including anti-environmentalism and “Covid-19 fearmongering”.